A Retrospect of Deptford in South Carolina

Summary

The label Deptford has long been synonymous with both a Woodland Period pottery type and a coastally oriented subsistence-residential adaptation. The former culture-historical terminology dates to 1939, while the latter concept is attributed to Milanich following his work on the Georgia coast in the early 1970s. Deptford also has been construed as a phase with a time-space-content connotation that incorporates aspects of both pottery and adaptation. Regardless of the specific meaning the term Deptford may hold, much of the foundational literature on Deptford comes from sites on the Southern Atlantic Coast, particularly those on or near the lower Savannah River. A synthesis of Deptford for the whole of South Carolina was not seen until much later, when Trinkley included Deptford in his volume on the Woodland Period in South Carolina, completed in 1990. While it seems like yesterday, it was, in fact, almost 30 years ago. What do we know now that we did not know then? How far has our understanding of this Woodland Period manifestation come? We build on the work of Trinkley and others in a reassessment of some key aspects of space and time for South Carolina Deptford.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Karen Smith

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21291

File Information